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Back in the olden days when the weather was warmer in March and April we would often take a drive to our family cottage for Good Friday. (Our church rents so we can’t hold a traditional Good Friday Service.) It was usually our first view of the cottage after the winter, and we would stop for breakfast on the way up and just have a great day. So this year we decided to do that again, but thought we would also spend the night – for fun. Ha. But it wasn’t all fun, because for some reason although we KNEW there was still snow at the cottage, we didn’t exactly prepare for it. So the kids played and got soaked playing in the slush without snow-pants and ended up having to spend the rest of the day indoors. We had packed light since we were only staying for one night which meant the kids had to change into their pj’s and we may have all gotten a little cranky from being stuck inside for the rest of the day. And then what is a mom supposed to do when faced with a bunch of wet jeans in a cottage with no washer or dryer? Well she bakes them in a convection oven at 250 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Who knew baking jeans would be so easy, or so smelly (that’s ditto for the socks, but WAY stinkier).

Backing up now to three weeks ago – I had the opportunity to go to SickKids and share our Ava story with a group of people taking a palliative care course. It’s such an honour to be asked to go and Jason and I both feel it’s just a small way that we can give back to the hospital who gave so much to Ava. It’s always a pleasure to be there and meet with some of the wonderful people that we got to know while we lived in Toronto. It actually really makes me miss my time in Toronto and I look back with a little bit of longing for those days when Ava was alive and we saw our Toronto people regularly. But now I’m just happy for any opportunity to see them and I also have to thank my dad who comes with me because we had such a great day together and I love the company and I love not having to drive in Toronto in my not-so-small vehicle.

And now backing up all the way to the end of March (backing up seems to be a common theme here) – we had 3 inches of snow early one morning on a day that warmed up pretty quickly. Will, Sarah and Sophia headed out the door as soon as they could and built these 7 snowmen… one of each of us.

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But since it warmed up so quick, the snowmen starting melting and first we saw daddy topple, then I bit the dust, and noses all fell off and it wasn’t pretty. That afternoon the girls and I went and ran some errands, and when we came back, Sophia got out of the vehicle and ran into the yard yelling, “Is Ava still alive?” I laughed out loud. Oh dear sweet Sophia, I wish, I wish Ava was still alive. But as for your baby snowman, it may have died. Life can be harsh. 🙂

And staying on the subject of life being harsh, yesterday at church they mentioned a conference coming up next weekend at Harvest Oakville by Paul Tripp called When Suffering enters your door. He says that we shouldn’t be surprised by suffering, it’s a universal experience for all humanity… and they showed this clip – which I HIGHLY recommend because it quickly explains how Jason and I were able to have the hope that we had in the face of our suffering.

Which brings me back (one more time) to a quote that I found when Ava was sick which I blogged about back then as well, …

In the mid-16th century Francis Xavier (1506–1552), a Catholic missionary, wrote to Father Perez of Malacca (today part of Indonesia) about the perils of his mission to China. He said,

The danger of all dangers would be to lose trust and confidence in the mercy of God… To distrust him would be a far more terrible thing than any physical evil which all the enemies of God put together could inflict on us, for without God’s permission neither the devils nor their human ministers could hinder us in the slightest degree

And a great verse from Romans 8:18

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Suffering if something that we all will experience at one time or another, but praise God that through Christ, it never has to be without hope.

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Welcome to our blog!

Thanks for stopping by. If you start reading you will see that we are mourning the loss of our of our sweet baby girl, Ava Samantha Grace, who died August 15, 2013. Our little 'Birdy' was born Dec 12, 2012 with a very serious congenital heart defect - hypo-plastic left heart - as well as Turner's syndrome. She had her first open heart surgery at two days old and died in hospital waiting for a heart transplant.

As well, we are learning to live with our daughter Sarah's with type 1 diabetes which is more challenging than I ever thought it would be.

We believe that all of our children are precious gifts from God and have been so thankful for them.
God is good and through all this we are focusing on our blessings.
We're so glad you joined us.